Kent Bush: Bulldogs are this year's baseball Cinderella

Cinderella's still dancing and, this year, she's a real dog — a Bulldog that is.

If for some reason you fail to see the entertainment value of college baseball, you're missing out on quite a story.

Kent Bush

Cinderella's still dancing and, this year, she's a real dog — a Bulldog that is.
If for some reason you fail to see the entertainment value of college baseball, you're missing out on quite a story.

These are the guys who didn't get drafted out of high school. Maybe they did get drafted, but they thought a few more seasons against good competition would refine their game and push them into the portion of the draft where there are signing bonuses — not assigned seats on a rickety team bus with a team where only about half the players speak English.

The worst-case scenario is they get a college education and go pro in something other than baseball.

The game isn't exactly pure baseball. This isn't Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in 1961. The home runs come a little easier off the aluminum bats — even after the NCAA forced manufacturers to limit their performance.

The offense rules the day. After all, most of the wicked arms get paid to pitch as 18-year-olds. These guys are the almost great ones who have developed their craft.
It is a fun brand of baseball, and Fresno State is one of the best stories the game has produced in years.

They started the season with high hopes. But on the opening weekend, they split a set of games with a brand new Division I team and doubt crept in. In the time since that opening weekend, they have dropped 30 games — the most of any team to reach the finals of the College World Series in Omaha.

They beat North Carolina 6-1 Sunday night to punch their ticket to the finals and deny UNC a chance to be the first team since Texas in 1985 to make it to the finals three years in a row.

It isn't surprising that a team ranked among the bottom of the 64 teams who made the tournament — Fresno State won the Western Athletic Conference Tournament to seal a bid into the field — could win a game or two against the big boys. In baseball, if you have one good pitcher, you have a slugger's chance.

But to win the four-team regional and then take two of three games from No. 3 Arizona State is shocking. To blow through the field in Omaha with their best pitcher in the dugout due to injury is miraculous.

Another great factoid is that neither Georgia nor Fresno State made it to the CWS last year. Whoever comes out on top will be the first team since the 1994 Oklahoma Sooners to win the title without appearing in the tournament the previous year.

If you love baseball, you'll enjoy the heart and competitive spirit of the CWS finals.

You might get to see Cinderella trip the light fantastic. Or maybe Georgia will push the clocks ahead to midnight and show Fresno State who the real Bulldogs are in the fight.

Either way, it will be a great event.

Augusta Gazette

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